Quixotic
I've been joshed about doing the daily paper crosswords at work. I do them rather quickly, and I do encourage others to have a go, and leave them for those who want to try. One of the Aides is getting a lot better, two of the nurses will get most of them. One of the nurses chided me for finishing it so fast, and not leaving it for them. I now hold off until after noon, then consider it fair game. All rather expect me to finish them up when they can't. When I solve them, working through without a lot of trouble, I do get comments. I try to shrug it off, explain that I've been doing them for quite a while, did several a day while taking the trains around Boston due to the couple of free papers in the morning, and leftover Globes and Heralds in the afternoon.
I've got both a love of words and puns, and a broad range of knowledge, with the exception of sports. But having seen Wordplay, I know I'm a pretty mediocre puzzler, I suck at the NYT crossword (damn Will Shortz*) and have never even tried an acrostic. So, I'm labeled as kind of brainy, but I know I'm only average among the intelligent people. I love being around people smarter than I am, so that I can learn from them. I love being the dumbest person in the room, like floating in deep water rather than splashing through a puddle.
Came across a discussion, where the question came up, what do we hide? And I hide my intellectual competence - around people who reveal a kind of disdainful awe of intelligence. Because, honestly, I'm lacking so many social skills, I know very well how many gaps‡ make cheese of my knowledge, that I get irritated at being seen as bright. So often I feel very dull, I have no other language, I'm a coward about reading classics, I flip numbers (and do the Sudoku† to counteract this failing) and my memory is fine for concepts but dithers about on details.
Imagine my quiet elation when D and I got to know each other, and found out we have identical IQs. Makes daily life so much easier. He's been listening to a recording of Don Quixote, and loves it.
*Not really, but he does do hard puzzles.
†Which I also learned to do on the T in Boston.
‡I in no way regret my professional sports gaps, though.
I've got both a love of words and puns, and a broad range of knowledge, with the exception of sports. But having seen Wordplay, I know I'm a pretty mediocre puzzler, I suck at the NYT crossword (damn Will Shortz*) and have never even tried an acrostic. So, I'm labeled as kind of brainy, but I know I'm only average among the intelligent people. I love being around people smarter than I am, so that I can learn from them. I love being the dumbest person in the room, like floating in deep water rather than splashing through a puddle.
Came across a discussion, where the question came up, what do we hide? And I hide my intellectual competence - around people who reveal a kind of disdainful awe of intelligence. Because, honestly, I'm lacking so many social skills, I know very well how many gaps‡ make cheese of my knowledge, that I get irritated at being seen as bright. So often I feel very dull, I have no other language, I'm a coward about reading classics, I flip numbers (and do the Sudoku† to counteract this failing) and my memory is fine for concepts but dithers about on details.
Imagine my quiet elation when D and I got to know each other, and found out we have identical IQs. Makes daily life so much easier. He's been listening to a recording of Don Quixote, and loves it.
*Not really, but he does do hard puzzles.
†Which I also learned to do on the T in Boston.
‡I in no way regret my professional sports gaps, though.
Labels: conversations, job, word
Posted by Zhoen on Friday, February 11, 2011
6 comments:
how did you get to compare IQs? is that an army thing like your height?
We dont know our IQs and I think it might be for the best!
(o)
When you still did the 11 plus exam here, everyone was tested in junior school, to see who'd try for the grammar school and who would go to the comprehensive school
Could be a military thing because I remember the teachers at the base school threatening me with the phrase, "you've got a high IQ so act like it and sit still." Humpf. So how is a high IQ a good thing then?
Rosie,
We'd both taken IQ tests in high school. I remembered my number because it was the same as the number of students in my graduating class. D, because he remembers that sort of thing. We had a lot of time to just chat.
gz,
I don't think our numbers were actually used for anything, except as school data.
Rou,
It's just one measurement, not much good as a single data point, but does predict acedemic performance, generally. 100 is average. In the US, if one is a criminal, a very low IQ means one will not be executed. Happy thought. Ultimately, it's like knowing ones mass, area, astrology sign or ring size. Interesting at best.
(o)
i found out my IQ by accident and it's been hanging around my neck, albatross-like, ever since. not even close to using it: i think i'm maybe riding around with training wheels and licking a lollipop. and i too love being the dumbest person in the room. sadly, because of what i do for a living (and this is going to sound awful) it's usually the opposite.
i had an informal high school reunion over christmas ( went to an academic brainiac school) and it was lovely to talk to people for whom thinking was fun. i felt very rusty, very much out of practice, but it felt much better than the continual dumbing down of everything.
i remember once reading a fairly hefty tome on a work trip. everyone around me was reading really really fluffy crap (i mean danielle steele-level poor writing, not necessarily fluffy content - i'm ok with that provided it's written well). they asked me what i was reading and when i explained, they looked at me with genuine puzzlement on their faces and asked me, "why?". i got a little pissed off and answered snarkily, "because i have a brain." not a classy moment, but come on!
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